U.S. Game Against Italy Draws Biggest Overnight Since ’98

U.S.-Italy Earns ABC Highest Overnight World Cup Rating Since ‘98

ABC’s coverage on Saturday of the U.S.-Italy World Cup match drew a 5.2/13 overnight Nielsen rating, the network’s highest World Cup overnight since earning a 6.9/17 for the ’98 Final between Brazil and France. The overnight was also 246.7% from the comparable 1.5/4 ABC drew for a Poland-U.S. replay in ’02 (THE DAILY).

VOICES OF REASON: USA TODAY’s Michael Hiestand writes ABC’s Marcelo Balboa “candidly pointed out U.S. mistakes” during the game and “seemed fairly objective.” ABC’s Dave O’Brien “was workmanlike and dutifully used terms such as ‘nil’ and ‘pitch’” (USA TODAY, 6/19). In N.Y., Andrew Marchand notes Brent Musburger, who anchored ABC’s studio show, said during a pre-taped intro that the U.S. needed “a win in hopes of advancing to the second round.” Marchand writes the “misinformation — the [U.S.] is still alive even after tying Italy Saturday — began a telecast that felt as if ABC, like the Americans, might have been playing two men down.” Balboa opening the game broadcast “contradicted Musburger, mentioning the [U.S.] only needed a win or a tie to help its cause” (N.Y. POST, 6/19). If the favored Czech Republic had defeated Ghana in the previous game on Saturday, then the U.S. would have needed a win to avoid being mathematically eliminated from advancing (THE DAILY).

WEEK RESPONSE: FIFAWorldCup.com during the first week of the World Cup attracted 1.2 billion page views, the largest one-week total in its history. The site is averaging five million visitors per day, led by last Monday’s 226 million page views by 6.2 million visitors. The site has also had 31 million video streams and more than 600,000 fantasy sign-ups (FIFA).

EYES OF THE WORLD: In Manchester, Stephen Brook reports global TV audiences for the World Cup “have surged, with audiences up nearly 30% for the opening matches compared with 2002,” according to a survey of live matches in 23 markets by media analyst Initiative. The study found the average global audience for each match had grown 26% from the ’02 event in South Korea and Japan, “mainly as a result of better timezones for viewers in Europe” (Manchester GUARDIAN, 6/19)....ITV1’s coverage of England-Trinidad & Tobago on Thursday attracted 14.1 million viewers in England and scored a 73 share — “the biggest TV audience of the tournament so far in the U.K.” BBC1’s coverage of England-Paraguay on June 10 was seen by 11.9 million viewers and drew an 84 share (DAILY VARIETY, 6/19).